So I sent off a couple emails to the Kobo support team via email on the 11th.
I got a response back 5mins later saying they have escalated the issue to level 2... I have yet to hear anything else since.

I know I've read a few posts where folks got suggestions back on how to fix a problem, but every single one has been either:

Try a reset, or

'Reboot' the device

Has anyone got any useful responses from the Kobo team?
I haven't seen any statement from Kobo regarding anything about the first firmware update, in regards to what bugs it will address and when we can expect it... has anyone?

So I sent off a couple emails to the Kobo support team via email on the 11th.
I got a response back 5mins later saying they have escalated the issue to level 2... I have yet to hear anything else since.

I know I've read a few posts where folks got suggestions back on how to fix a problem, but every single one has been either:

Try a reset, or

'Reboot' the device

Has anyone got any useful responses from the Kobo team?
I haven't seen any statement from Kobo regarding anything about the first firmware update, in regards to what bugs it will address and when we can expect it... has anyone?

I called them by phone a couple of days ago.

I was told that new firmware is expected "in a couple of weeks" and that one of the things they are working on is some kind of grouping of large e-book collections.
But they were not willing to be more specific as it relates to the actual date...

If I get lucky the new firmware may be out by the time I get my Kobo...

I also note that the Kobo support folks don't seem to be appearing in the forum here the way they were doing for a bit there. I'm not checking everywhere, or keeping any kind of count, but it seems like a couple of them were popping up every now and then for the first week or so.

Support was horrible. I e-mailed them the day I ordered mine ( first Friday after they were released) asking about the font size in the ePub. They got back to me yesterday. With a complete none answer.

Something along the lines of they are aware of the problems and they're working on it.

Kobo development is using Agile methodology - "release early, release often". This means the team works in sprints of a few weeks where they provide features and bug fixes that are scaled to that release.

You should figure that there will be a lot of changes very quickly to the Kobo platform and ereader software over the next year.

This also means that if you find a bug, they probably have someone working on it fairly soon if it is serious. Likely, the support responses are somewhat lagged waited for responses from the development team working on these issues.

Agile development should mean that a small number of bulletproof features are released on a regular basis; focus is on a small feature set with each release to ensure quality, and each iteration adds new features. Unfortunately, it also sometimes means (somewhat contrary to agile development philosophy) that quality control and testing are left by the wayside in the push to release early and often.

Given the ePub font issue, the lack of PDF reflow, and the completely unpredictable red light issue, I'd say they pushed out without testing. That said, the list of things in the firmware wish list thread should all be checked off eventually. I just wish that when they've got mission-critical bugs that they'd do every other day or weekly releases to fix one or two things with each release.

Well, I'm a fan of the basic Kobo unit and its simpleness. However, I am pretty surprised that the ePub font issue which was identified publicly a week or two before release -- it doesn't get any more glaring than that -- still isn't fixed. How could something that commonplace have been missed?

The second issue is basic instructions for set-up. I'd be willing to bet a significant percentage of customers don't do it properly or don't realise what to do -- and either get frustrated or bombard customer support with expensive to fulfil requests. As soon as people start bypassing the ADE / Kobo software, the user is on a path of danger.

The third basic issue is the inability, even with the software above, to customize the 100 free books -- deleting them selectively, or backing them up with the ability to re-add them later.

I do hope Kobo addresses all of these in the coming few days and certainly ahead of the much larger Borders release on Jun 17. Otherwise the reputation of the whole enterprise could end up in the ... well, you know.